@ETpro Hilarious. Not even 30 minutes ago I put this video in a paper I was writing, in it I was talking about just how insignificant and small our entire planet is. Everything we’ve ever experienced is nothing when compared to the whole universe. We are ourselves living in the macro world. We are special and we need to take care of what we have here.

Sagan wrote a book titled Pale Blue Dot, and his Demon-Haunted World reads almost like poetry. To use a phrase from Sagan’s only work of fiction (Contact), “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” He had a way of getting his point across. That it’s both obvious and unoriginal does not diminish its meaning in my life.

It’s a hackneyed message for me. I don’t even know what it’s supposed to mean. It doesn’t change a thing about how we live our lives, nor what is important to us. Are we myopic? Hell yeah! Show me one practical reason why we shouldn’t be. We are where it’s at.

The photo…was taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 as it sailed away from Earth, more than 4 billion miles in the distance. Having completed its primary mission, Voyager at that time was on its way out of the Solar System, on a trajectory of approximately 32 degrees above the plane of the Solar System. Ground Control issued a command that directed the distant space craft to turn around and, looking back, take photos of each of the planets it had visited. From Voyager’s vast distance, the Earth was captured as a infinitesimal point of light…actually smaller than a single pixel of the photo…Quite by accident, the Earth was captured in one of the scattered light rays caused by taking the image at an angle so close to the Sun.

There’s a Wikipedia article, too, which notes that the photo was taken at Sagan’s request.

That’s just one perspective, there are others. I thought Sagan’s point was made more effectively when we saw the Earth rising above the moon’s barren horizon back in the 1970’s. It didn’t stop us destroying the planet but it did make a point.

@burntbonez If the 4 minute film didn’t answer that question, I doubt I can in a few words written here.

@gasman GA. Thanks for the alternate link to the film, and also for the great perspective on Sagan’s message and the links to the original “blue dot” photo from Voyager I and the link on its current exploits.

@flutherother Those who would destroy the planet for profit are so focused on money they can see nothing else.